Adele - Someone Like You

Forget sales figures or awards, a song's really made it when it turns up on the 'most requested at funerals' list.

Adele's all-conquering Someone Like You achieved that honour this week when the annual Co-operative Funeralcare list was published, being the 22nd most requested song at UK funerals in the last 12 months.

• Keep clicking for the top 20 most requested funeral songs

And if you think pop music is inappropriate for such occasions, you're in the minority - it now accounts for twice as many requests as hymns.

Predictably enough, Frank Sinatra's My Way was top of the list, a position it has occupied for the last seven years.

Humorous selections like Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life are always popular but the study also reveals that a quarter of funeral homes have refused music on the grounds of taste, usually because clergy conducting the ceremony feel the choice is inappropriate, with one example being John Lennon's Imagine with its lyrics about there being no heaven.

The Co-operative Funeralcare spokeswoman Lorinda Robinson said: ''Hymns were once the mainstay of a funeral service but pop music plays such an important part in people's lives that it now acts as the theme tune to their passing. Modern funerals are very much about personal choice and this is often reflected in the choice of music.

''Song lyrics now provide the poignant words to remember a loved one's life, either to acknowledge how much they were loved and will be missed or as a reminder of their favourite hobby, pastime or humour.''

• Keep clicking for the top 20 most requested funeral songs